Wagon-tongue attachment.



G. HOPMAISTER. WAGON TONGUE ATTAGHMEN T.

APPLICATION FILED APR.- 28, 1908.

' Patented Jan. 5, 1909.

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G. HOFMAISTER. WAGON TONGUE ATTACHMENT. APPLICATION FILED APR. 28, 1908.

908,672. Patented Jan.5,1909.

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UNITED srarns Parana orrron GEORGE HOFMAISTER, OF UNION CENTER,WISCONSIN.

WAGON-TONGUE ATTAOI-HVIENT.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I GEORGE HOFMAISTER, a citizen of the United States,residing at Union Center, in the county of Juneau, State of Wisconsin,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in VVagon-TongueAttachments; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to devices for preventing horses from moving whenthe driver is absent, and has for one of its objects to provide a simplyconstructed device whereby any attempt of the horses to move forwardwill draw their heads together and thus effectually prevent furtherforward movement.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simply constructeddevice attachable to the draft tongue and disposed out of the way whennot in use, and adapted to be coupled to the head stalls of the horses,and operating to draw their heads together at any attempt at forwardmovement, and thus check further forward movement.

With these and other objects in view the invention consists in twoflexible members, such as chains, connected to the draft tongue at adistance from its forward end and adapted to be coupled at their freeends to the head stalls of the harnesses, preferably by snaps to the bitrings. Then by simply unhitching one of the tugs from one of theswingle-trees, the double-tree will be free to swing upon the tongue,which will leave the horses free to move forwardly a short distanceindependently of the tongue, but any movement of this kind will causethe flexible members to draw the horses heads together and thuseffectually check any further forward movement.

In the drawings illustrating the preferred embodiment of the invention,Figure 1 is a side view of a ortion of a wagon tongue with the improvecattachment shown thereon. Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view from above, of ateam of horses, a draft tongue, and the double-tree and swingle-treestogether with outlines of the tugs or traces, with the im provedattachment applied. Fig. 3 is a perspective' view of a portion of one ofthe draw elements. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the forward end ofthe tongue showing its construction.

The tongue is represented at 10, the double- Speoification of LettersPatent.

Application filed April 28, 1908.

Patented Jan. 5, 1909.

Serial No. 429,595.

tree at 11, the swingle-trees at 1213, the traces or tugs at 14-15-1617,the head stalls at 18l9 with the usual bit rings, and

the yoke chains-between the tongue and the collars of the horses at2021, all of these parts being of the usual construction.

Attached at 22 to the tongue 10 are two flexible members, preferablychains 24*25, with means at their outer ends for detachable coupling tothe head stalls 1819, the coupling means being preferably snaps 2627engaged with the bit rings. The chains when not in use are snapped intothe yoke stop, or a special loop as at 28 may be attached to tips:tongue when the yoke stop is not availa e.

In tongues where the yoke element is in the form of chains, an eye orloop device is employed at the outer end of the tongue in which the yokechains are coupled, and in tongues of this class, this eye or loop isutilized to hold the flexible members when not in use, but in tonguesnot supplied with such loops a special loop will be provided, asrepresented at 28. It will thus be obvious that while the tugs arecoupled to the swingletrees, the tongue and the horses will moveforwardly together, and the flexible members 2l25 will also moveforwardly with the other parts, and remain inoperative, but as abovestated, if one of the tugs be uncoupled, any forward movement of thehorses thereafter will swing the double-tree upon the tongue leaving thetongue unmoved and likewise holding the rear ends of the flexiblemembers immovable, and causing the heads of the horses to be drawntogether and effectually checking any further forward movement.

The members 24-25 may be of any suitable material, such as straps,cords, chains, or the like, and it is not desired therefore to limit theinvention to any particular form or material for these portions of theimproved device.

hat is claimed, is

1. The combination with a vehicle draft tongue, of two flexible membersconnected to the tongue rearwardly of its forward end and with means atthe outer ends of the flexible members for coupling to the head stallsof the horses.

2. The combination with a vehicle draft tongue, of two flexible membersconnected to the tongue rearwardly of its forward end and with means atthe outer ends of the flexible upon the tongue, the harness includingthe to the tongue and with means at the other members for coupling tothe bit rings of the ends for. connecting respectively to the head 10horses. stalls.

3. The combination with a draft tongue, a In testimony whereof, I afiixmy signature, double-tree and its swingle-trees swinging in presence oftwo witnesses.

GEORGE HOFMAISTER.

head stalls, and the traces adapted to be detachably coupled to theswingle-trees, and two flexible members connected at one end

